"…Aenir?" He'd walked by the table she was sitting at with his mind in his tome, but he'd noticed that she hadn't said anything to him as he passed by. This was uncharacteristic behaviour of the dragon, who always sought contact at every possible opportunity- even if the only reply she got was a mumbling, she was happy to hear him acknowledging her presence at least. He looked up from the tome, seeing that she was sitting at the table with one hand around a mug of tea, and the other supporting her head. She had a very concerned expression on her face, which worried Nergal. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing important," Aenir said, but her voice betrayed that it was, in fact, important. Nergal shut his tome and put it on the kitchen table along with the tea that he had left his room for in the first place, sitting down opposing her. "It's nothing, Nergal," she insisted, lifting her head from her hand. When he didn't leave, just staring at her and bringing his tea up to his face, she sighed, hanging her head and dragging her hands through her hair. "Okay, fine. You win." Sitting straight, she then explained. "I'm expecting a visitor later today."

"That's unusual to say the least," Nergal knew. They lived a ways from Edessa, which was the closest town as things were. Besides, he wasn't aware that Aenir had contacts in town other than the shopkeepers that they did business with- she'd always struck him as a bit of a solitary creature, much like himself. He appreciated the peace and quiet. "Do they need something from you?"

Aenir shook her head. "Not particularly. He's passing by on his way to Sacae for some business or other and decided to drop by for a visit. At least, that's what I understood from his message." She put her hand to her forehead.

Nergal frowned. "If it's such a headache to you, then why didn't you refuse him? Surely you can keep your door shut, right?" He worried, now. Who was this person she was expecting? Her mate? Did dragons live together like humans did? He couldn't remember.

"I will never understand how you humans do that," she muttered, "shutting your door to your relatives." Resting both arms on the table, she gave him a hard stare. "He's my elder brother. And I regret to say, Nergal… he's not fond of humans. In the least." That explained why his visit concerned Aenir so much. "He doesn't usually take a smaller form like I do, either. He will do so when he arrives because otherwise he simply doesn't fit into the house, but…" she shook her head.

A short silence fell, until Nergal broke it. "…does he know about me?"

"No." Aenir didn't hesitate for a second with her reply. "I haven't told any of my relatives that I'm harbouring a human. If my brother finds out, well… I can't guarantee your safety, frankly. He's not staying overnight, thank Naga… but Nergal, can I ask you to stay in your room for the duration of his visit?"

"He won't know I exist." Finishing his tea and picking up his tome, Nergal got up, giving his landlady a reassuring smile. "I still have half a tome's worth of texts to sift through. I'll see to it I have enough paper, quills and ink to last me throughout the day."

Aenir smiled back at him. He noted that she was very attractive when she smiled, even if she did look a little tired. "Thank you, Nergal… that takes a huge load off my shoulders. I'm terribly sorry that I have to lock you up like an animal…"

"It's nothing," he assured her. "Being holed up in a room with a tome and a quill for company is nothing new to me. I'll happily do it if it means your relationship with your brother won't suffer under my presence here."

"…don't have to, I'll get it myself." Nergal looked up as Aenir's voice found its way to his ears. She sounded panicky.

But it was the second, more masculine voice, that caused him to jolt. "Nonsense, Aenir. Have I mentioned you seem jumpy today?" The door was opened, and Nergal jumped up from his desk. He didn't know why- did he think he could hide from the voice's owner? Of course, it was far too late for that, and when he stood, he looked into the eyes of a man easily as tall as him, but much more muscular. The colors of his fierce eyes and his hair were identical to Aenir's, and from this and his pointed ears, Nergal concluded that this was the dreaded brother.

For a few seconds, dragon and caster stared each other down. Then, the ice dragon turned and his voice caused Nergal's ears to ring. "SISTER!" he roared, "You have a human in your storeroom!"

"It's not my storeroom anymore," Aenir hurried to explain as she wrestled her way past her brother into the room and positioned herself between the two men. "I suppose now is as good a time to do introductions as any. Glacius, this is Nergal, my tenant. I found him passed out on the mountain and took him in. Nergal, this is my elder brother, Glacius."

"Tenant," Glacius said, crossing his arms. Nergal, whose eyes had been trained to spot Aenir's Dragonstone (he hoped to collect as much data on it as he could by watching it in use), spied that he was clutching a stone of his own. "I take it that means he pays rent?"

"He pays in company," Aenir replied, perfectly calm. Judging from the lack of change in her expression, she didn't realize the connotation that provoked fury onto her brother's face and a deep-red, flustered color on Nergal's. "That suffices for me. As you may know, the mountain days become awfully lonely."

"COMPANY?!" Glacius roared once more, his words hardly decipherable through the immense volume he produced. Nergal noted that apparently dragons' roaring wasn't reserved for their true form. "Are you expecting a mongrel, Aenir? Is that it?"

"NO!" Aenir proved herself equally capable of roaring in her current form. She quickly composed herself, though, and corrected herself. "I am not heavy," she reinstated, "And most certainly not with Nergal's egg. I provide him with housing and food, and nothing more."

"In exchange for your death? I did not know you were so uncaring that you would forget Frist." Frist… the name didn't ring a bell with Nergal, but judging from Aenir's sigh, it did with her.

"I have not forgotten, Glacius. But unlike you, I have not learnt to hate the entire human race." She seemed perfectly calm, while Nergal's heart only now stopped pounding after Glacius' accusation. The elder dragon hissed at his sister in a tongue Nergal did not understand, and Aenir responded in kind, causing him to recoil. Apparently whatever she had said was either very offensive or very unexpected.

"If you wish to fight over it," she followed up in Nergal's own language, "Then we can take it outside. Nergal stays. For as long as he wishes." She raised one hand, pointing towards Glacius. "It's you who can leave. This is how I live my life, Glacius. I have made it my calling to aid those humans who fall prey to Ilia's harsh blizzards. And I will not stop because you, or father or mother, wishes me to."

Nergal expected Glacius to attack him, or at least respond to Aenir's words, but all he did was turn around and walk away. Aenir dropped her hand, sighing. When in the distance, Nergal heard a door slam shut, she finally turned around. "…I'm sorry you had to see that," she said. "Glacius can be difficult. And like I said, he doesn't like humans…"

"It's okay," Nergal hurried to assure her. "Who is Frist? If you don't mind my asking."

Aenir hesitated, and her face dropped further. Nergal wished he hadn't asked. "Frist was our youngest sibling. Much like myself, she wanted to help your kind, but… she took in the wrong human. Her tenant murdered her in her sleep and disappeared. We still don't know where he or she went, but Glacius has distrusted humans ever since."

"I see…" He suppressed the urge to pat her back. "I'm sorry to hear that, Aenir. Are you sure you should be trusting me, then? Surely a dark mage of all things…"

"Didn't I just make that clear?" Suddenly, Aenir frowned. "Would you have me let your kind freeze to death outside because one was rotten enough to murder one of my kin? Because I refuse to, Nergal. I will not demand a payment of human blood in exchange for Frist's."

"Aenir…"

"Looks like we won't be seeing Glacius for a century or so," she continued, dropping the previous subject. "He can stay angry for so long." She shook her head. "Well… I'll get started on dinner. I expect you in the kitchen within half an hour, okay?" With that, she left. Nergal took the hint that she wanted to be left alone, and sat back down with his tome.

He felt the gnawing guilt that he had destroyed the relationship between brother and sister, but more than that, there was what Glacius and Aenir had said to each other in what Nergal could only have assumed to have been the draconian tongue. The hissing and grunting had certainly implied it… He decided to add it to his list of topics to study, but he found himself overcome by curiosity as to what they had said.

For now, it would have to wait. He'd have to comfort Aenir somehow, first… he didn't really feel comfortable with seeing the dragon upset. Having seen her brother in a human form, and rarely ever seeing her true form, it was getting harder and harder for him to see his landlady as anything else than a woman living a lonely existence.